Mohammad “Moe” Khandan-Barani
“VMI’s purpose is to prepare cadets to be effective leaders of strong character who will be successful in the next stage of their lives.”
- Mohammad “Moe” Khandan-Barani, VMI graduate
Leaving his home in Iran in 1978, Mohammad “Moe” Khandan-Barani never once dreamed he’d never see his homeland again, nor did he imagine that he’d attend a small military college in Virginia, become a very successful entrepreneur and settle permanently in the United States. Life, as it’s often said, happens when one is making other plans.
As a teenager, Khandan-Barani enrolled at Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia, with the goal of flying fighter jets for the Imperial Iranian Air Force. That plan ended, though, in February 1979 with the fall of the shah and the beginning of an Islamic theocracy in Khandan-Barani’s native land. Pivoting quickly, Khandan-Barani enrolled at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, a college known not only for its success in producing military officers but also leaders in the business world. The school’s engineering programs have a longstanding reputation for their excellence and rigor, and Khandan-Barani chose to major in electrical engineering.
After graduation in 1984, a VMI faculty member pointed Khandan-Barani in the direction of his first job at a company making electrical machinery — and from there, Khandan-Barani was on the path to success. Over the course of his career, he’s been awarded or applied for 25 patents in what he describes as “motion controls, motors and drives” with the first coming in the mid-1990s and the most recent in March 2024.
In 1989, Khandan-Barani moved to Radford, Virginia — which, as he puts it, “has been the ‘Silicon Valley’ of electric motors since the 1950s” — to work for the manufacturer Kollmorgen. After 7 years, Khandan-Barani became his own boss, creating Aspen Motion Technology in his garage. In time, it merged with another company to become Moog, which eventually employed 300 people and enjoyed $50 million in annual sales. Next, Khandan-Barani launched a new company, Aviemore Technologies, again from his garage. Needing capital to pursue his plans, he paired with an investor and created Oransi, for which he is now chief technology officer. The company produces air purifiers using a proprietary patent-pending motor technology, and Khandan-Barani sees an even larger market for his company’s products in two growing markets: Cooling for data centers, which use vast amounts of energy, and propulsion systems for drones.
VMI, he believes, gave him just the right foundation for innovation and entrepreneurship as he graduated into a rapidly changing world. “VMI’s purpose is to prepare cadets to be effective leaders of strong character who will be successful in the next stage of their lives,” he commented. “That is what makes VMI valuable to the state and the country.”
What’s more, VMI has provided Khandan-Barani, once a stranger in a strange land, with an anchor. “Like most alumni, I think about it all the time and recall lots of great memories from my [college years],” he said. “I am grateful to VMI because it set me on my professional path. VMI has a big place in my heart because to me it is home. I’ve never been back to Iran, so when people ask where I am from, I say VMI.”
For more information, visit vmi.edu.
